The decision ends months of hand-wringing by U.S. officials over whether to stick to a Dec. 31 withdrawal deadline that was set in 2008 or negotiate a new security agreement to ensure that gains made and more than 4,400 American military lives lost since March 2003 do not go to waste.

i thought this had already been decided. too much too keep up with.

what are we doing in Libya? still working on that?

israel, palestine--still working on that.

i know we are still working on afghanistan.

probably doing a lot more--always have to do it--all over the world. not much new about that.